I’d enter a dim, sweaty room where some faint, horribly distorted voices were crying out and have to climb a slope. Every time I had this, it came in threes. I had a recurring nightmare for a while in elementary school. And then when I was calm and they were done with all that bullshit, they brought me back in for Chadder of all things. I don’t remember specific words I do remember being shamed for being afraid of this. My parents, and I think some of the other adults, expressed some disappointment about this. They took me back to some room where the younger kids were doing something so I could cool off. At some point in this display I freaked the fuck out and had to leave this place. Then she started talking about how the reason we’re in here is because she ran away from God (as Jonah remember, she got real in character) and maybe this is her chance to repent and it’s so bad that she didn’t follow God’s command the first time. I think the other kids could handle it a bit better than I did, but this was a terrifying environment.

I’m a bit less certain on these two details, but she might’ve brought some pungent fish into the place to make it smell weird and played loud ass whale song on one of those little boombox/CD player/radio things that were common around that time. She was running some kind of high-octane humidifier and fan in there I think, because the whole place was dark and wet and humid. The entire fucking room was dimly lit and lined with black plastic, I think she ripped up some trash bags and stuck them to the walls and ceiling in there. My memory of the exact conditions in here isn’t perfect, so I’ll explain this as best as I remember it. Sharon ushered us into the atrium thing, which was now very different from its ordinary state.

Chadder the chipmunk